Many Catholic deaf people do not have strong links to the Church and are not regular attenders because of the lack of access to NZSL interpreters says Palmerston North deaf community chaplain David Loving- Molloy. He says deaf community chaplains are making the DVD that can be used to train priests to introduce New Zealand Read more
Posts Tagged ‘New Zealand’
The cost of a prosperous land
Tuesday, June 17th, 2014
Water is creating lots of dairy millionaires, but at what cost to our environment? Recipe for prosperity: take flat land, skilled farmers, fertiliser and cows. Add cheap water. Fold in new technology, lashings of debt and permissive environmental rules. Voila! In a decade or two you have a thriving district with next-to-no unemployment, a rising Read more
God and the multi-plug
Friday, June 13th, 2014
John Cameron always had faith. It just took a brand-new suit for him to find it. It was an 18th birthday present, and he wanted to wear it straight away. But, as a teenager “mucking around … wasting potential” in west Auckland, he was dressed up with nowhere to go – but church. “I just Read more
Making voting matter
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Laura O’Connell Rapira has a pretty simple philosophy. “Everyone should have a nice life,” she tells a small audience at a Wellington bar. “Small actions, multiplied, can lead to big change,” she says. Laura, 25, outlines her pitch for RockEnrol, a movement to increase youth voter turnout. The audience is a mix of smartphones and activists Read more
After the boom comes the pinch
Friday, May 16th, 2014
It’s tough to picture the future if you’re a New Zealander under 30. Your first home has never been more out of reach, if you want to live in one of the main centres – not that we have much of a choice, because high rates of unemployment and thousands of dollars of student debt Read more
Sweet charity
Tuesday, May 13th, 2014
New Zealanders rightly refuse to be awed by wealth. But just as we condemn the excesses of capitalism, so we should give credit to those who selflessly put their money to good use. They are opposite sides of the same coin. In any case, philanthropy is not the preserve of the very rich. On the Read more
Marriage and Millennials
Friday, May 9th, 2014
Anya Tate-Manning, 33, has been with her partner, James, for “about five years” now. That she has to stop and think about it for a moment, counting backwards to when they first got together, is telling of their level of commitment – there’s no self-conscious mental tallying of months like there is by those on Read more
Financial advice won’t pull poor out of poverty
Tuesday, April 15th, 2014
I was working on a standard-of-living case and was shown figures prepared by an approved budget advisory service for Meg and her daughter Stacey (I have simplified some detail and changed their names). Meg’s chronic health condition ruled out paid employment, so she was on a benefit. The budget recorded the family’s 2012 weekly income Read more
Creating a refuge from violence
Friday, April 11th, 2014
We live in a violent society. You can see it in popular movies, our favourite sports, the occasional spectacular act of violence that captures our collective imaginations. Wondering if David Bain did it is still a national hobby; I’ve even chatted about it over a flat white and scone at morning tea. Somehow, it’s an easy conversation. Read more